Police cracking down on speeding, aggressive driving on busy Route 8

The Shaler Township Police Department is cracking down on speeding and aggressive driving on Route 8. 

Shaler Police Chief Sean Frank says his officers are always on patrol, but they're freshening up their approach with "Operation Safe Speed."

"Our goal here is safety and try to change the driving habits of people, especially on Route 8," Frank said. "It's a busy road."

Route 8 is a main artery for Shaler and surrounding communities. It connects Allegheny and Butler counties and has many businesses lining it, so it sees a good amount of traffic, especially during rush hour, which Frank says presents challenges with hazardous driving.

"A lot of aggressive driving going on, speeding, red light violations, passing without signals," Frank said. 

"This is a 40-mph road, and we see cars go well into the 60s at times," Frank said.

According to Shaler Township crash data, in 2025, there were 32 reportable crashes on Route 8, which means there were injuries or vehicles towed or both, and there were 61 non-reportable crashes. And so far this year, there's already been 14 reportable crashes and 38 non-reportable.

The hope is that this initiative will help decrease those numbers and keep people safe.

"For the safety of everybody involved, it would be really good, especially with the new cell phone law that came in," said Shaler resident Kailey Shudes. "People are distracted by cell phones and they're speeding. Who knows what can happen after that?"

Frank says drivers can expect "intermittent and sporadic enforcement."

"We're going to be out here as much as we can, call volume dependent, officer availability dependent, concentrating on the early morning and afternoon hours."